Painting

The painterly look of Bartek Materka is directed at the everyday visual adventures, but he especially concentrates on the deformations which the image of reality undergoes in our consciousness. Materka’s works, which are usually created on the basis of photographs, are an analysis of the optical apparatus and the influences exerted on it by modern optic technologies and the methods of generating images (digital picture, television, microscopes, ASCII code).

Another inspiration for the artist are the deformations of related to neurological disorders. Also predominant is the question of emotions from private life – the heroes of Materka’s paintings are usually people from his closest milieu: his wife Joanna, son Tytus, female friends. Often these are exactly the emotions generated by the relations which find visualization in the paintings. This distorts both the paintings and images, overclouds them, makes them come apart and imposes one on top of the other, which, in turn, demands that different perspectives of perception and understanding be employed.